CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Power & Light Inc (GPL), Mr. Bharat Dindyal, announced last Friday that Parliament has approved a subsidy of $20,000 per year for pensioners; and, within a month’s time, GPL would compile a list – after thorough verification — for forwarding to the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security.

He added that GPL received from the Ministry of Human Services & Social Security a list of the pensioners who are intended to benefit from the initiative; but when the power entity tried to match that list by name to the GPL database for pensioners in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, the entity received a match for only one of the names from more than 12,000 pensioners.
Dindyal said GPL also cross-referenced the names and addresses stated on the Human Services Ministry’s list with the list of pensioners in its database, and only 6,000 addresses matched the information in the GPL database; but the power entity has contacted the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) to see how that entity went about sanitising its database.
Dindyal said GPL is now in process of calling in each of the 6,000 customers with a matching address in the GPL database to try to confirm each pensioner’s identity, because one must be a customer of GPL to benefit from the subsidy; therefore those with a match would have to be summoned to GPL to clarify their respective identities and prove they are customers of the power company, in order that the list of beneficiaries may be finalised.
Dindyal added that this exercise should be completed within one month’s time.
The Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms Jennifer Webster, responding last Thursday in the National Assembly to a question posed by A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP) Ms. Volda Lawrence, said some $590M has been allocated in the 2013 National Budget for electricity assistance to pensioners.
Ms. Lawrence had asked the minister when the assistance would be accessible to pensioners, and whether there were any plans to sensitise them about how the assistance can be accessed; and Minister Webster related that GPL has been matching the information provided by the ministry with that in its own database, and to date, GPL has identified more than 6,000 persons who would receive the subsidy of $20,000.

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Minister Webster said there are now plans to invite the pensioners to GPL, so as to work out some minor issues.
“What we have found is that some of the pensioners have changed their addresses, and the addresses we have do not match the GPL database in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7,” she explained.
Minister Webster said the Human Services Ministry and GPL intend to have this exercise completed before August 12. Moreover, the ministry intends to mount a public awareness campaign to sensitise pensioners on this matter. She noted that plans are already in train in regard to mounting the sensitization campaign.
Minister Webster said the expectation is to have everything sorted out, and all arrangements concluded by the end of August this year, in order that the annual subsidy of $20,000 can be credited to the pensioners’ respective GPL accounts.